#Amir Motlagh

[animalsenterprises]

Premiere of "four" - 12/20/2019 - 12am EST

“mirs wonders into the desert in search of an old friend.” (links below to Youtube & Vimeo)

[rrrauschen]

Amir Motlagh, {2012} 35 Year Old Man

[findasongblog]

Find A Song from the timely released EP love in the great uncertainty

Mirs - namu

ANIMALS Publishing Worldwide presents love in the great uncertainty, the latest EP & film from first-gen Iranian American LA-based artist, Mirs. love in the great uncertainty is a timely release in our days of isolation, rough around the edges in design, but cathartic in message. The EP is part of an ancillary short film with the same title. The latest visual single release follows in the footsteps of CANYON (EP - 2016), Rainbow Season (LP - 2019) and fourxfour (single – 2019). Mirs is the long running music project of filmmaker, singer, songwriter & producer, Amir Motlagh. love in the great uncertainty is only available through Bandcamp, with a wider digital release shortly following (tba). The film is available for viewing on Youtube & Vimeo now.  

[like-it-was-yesterday]

Getting out of your head for the first time is both liberating & terrifying. the world opens up & you're nothing, but now you can sleep soundly. The mind will lure you back & the cycle begins anew.

Amir Motlagh

[sethmeeyn]

Bobak Kalhor's A Dying King uncovers the hidden story of the death of The Shah of Iran by Eric ...

He had all yes men around him. He was afraid of what people would think.” Kalhor assembled a loyal team to help him facilitate his vision. His DP, Amir Motlagh was also interested in the subject matter and traveled with him to various locations to capture the story. Editor, Denis Opalchenski pieced ...

[willprescott]

35 YEAR OLD MAN by filmmaker and friend, Amir Motlagh.

Just watch it. 

[animalsenterprises]

THREE WORLDS is HERE!!

You can finally watch THREE WORLDS on Vimeo On Demand starting now!  This is the soft launch, with many platforms coming soon including Amazon Prime. Though, being an amazing first adapter, you don't like waiting.

I don't want to say too much about the film, but it is a unique experience. Like my other film MAN, it benefits from putting the phone and distractions away for 90 minutes. Though, while part of the same series of works, THREE WORLDS is nothing like MAN on a structural/formalistic level. (if you haven't watched MAN, click here).

Additional info:

Three Worlds is a psychological science fiction drama that explores the three lives, or 'worlds,' of a man who undergoes an experiment that triggers haunting memories and alternate life memories.

Written & Directed by Amir Motlagh Produced by ANIMALS, Amir Motlagh, Charles Borg Director of Photography: Amir Motlagh

Starring: Amir Motlagh Samantha Robinson Rey Deegan Keaton Shyler Gregory Linington

Editing: Bryan Tuck, Amir Motlagh Original Score by Julian DW Brink

Sound Designer & Re-Recording Mixer: Stephen Holliger

1/3 of the THREE MARKS, TOO MANY SIGNALS trilogy.

Press Quotes:

"It's rare to mix rawness with beauty" - Marcus Pinn PINNLAND EMPIRE / ZEBRAS IN AMERICA

"It's always exciting whenever a distinct new voice makes itself heard on the indie landscape. Amir Motlagh is such a voice...."Honest and soulful" - Adam Schartoff FILMWAX RADIO

“There is without a doubt a definitive boldness to “Three Worlds”, both in its tone and aspirations, and it will certainly require viewers to lean in a little closer, which is never a bad thing…..a curious and fascinating watch.” - David Fowlie KEEPING IT REEL

The experience of both films (MAN + Three Worlds) is one that any film connoisseur must have. To sit with an awareness of the film, and, an awareness of how you are watching it, is a surreal act that can only be described as “art.” Motlagh’s work is definitely a piece of art in the medium of film.” - Jonita Davis THE IRANIAN

[findasongblog]

Find A Song that is a trippy, meditative sojourn into the California desert

Mirs - Fourxfour

ANIMALS Publishing Worldwide presents fourxfour, the latest single from first gen Iranian American LA-based artist, Mirs. fourxfour takes him back to experimental roots; mixing electronica, post wave, experimental lofi pop & shoegaze into a trippy, meditative sojourn into the California desert. The single is followed by an ancillary short film tentatively titled four to be released before the end of 2019. The latest visual single release follows in the footsteps of CANYON (EP - 2016) & Rainbow Season (LP - 2019). Mirs is the long running music project of filmmaker, singer, songwriter & producer, Amir Motlagh. (press release)

[limitedtoss]

Shanks and the Dreamers - Camel Crusaderby Amir Motlagh 

[fesenjoon]

"Khoobi? (are you ok?)" (2011) by Amir Motlagh. 

A young man born with an obsessive compulsive drive dreams of making a movie. His first feature length film. But obstacles lay in his path, including memories of his childhood days spent in a war torn world, that shake his soul to this day.

See Amir's other projects at http://www.amirmotlagh.com/  (Thanks to SS at ParsArts for the tip!)

[asianamericanfilm]

"My Break Ups Into a Million Pieces" by Amir Motlagh - The film-essay "my break ups into a million pieces" is about Bose's migration to Southern California after her artist-father's death. Directed by Amir Motlagh, this 16-minute film, shot in digital video and super 8, is an exploration of personal and spiritual identity, death, romantic relationships and myth of Americana from an Asian perspective.

[animalsenterprises]

RAINBOW SEASON LP & A Dark Desert Drive with No Lights

It's been a decade since I released a "full length" record. The first time up, I was just learning music production. I had never recorded anything myself before (not entirely true; I had recorded a short film score ((STILL LOVER)) on a portable multi-track), and my understanding of the process was from what I gleamed from observing my friend produce my first record, which was purely an instrumental one. While I had some production credits on that, my role was in composition, instrumentation and performing, not in tracking, or any of the studio stuff associated with recording records. Up to that point, I had been in and out of bands, mostly just playing electric guitar. But the opportunity appeared because I felt like I could do it. The thought just sprang up in my head, and like the field of dreams, it had to be done.  

It was an intense ordeal, since I had no clue, and was left to learn everything myself, from the ground up. But that process taught me an invaluable lessons; that if you want to do something way outside your competence, it can still be done. Dive head first, break shit, learn, and if you're still excited, do it again was the ethos. You have that bounce back energy with youth & there never is anything to lose. Time refines process, but process comes before quality even after refinement. You never really know quality (it's an intangible), but you always know process & that's easier to refine. 

My time in music happened in a similar way to filmmaking. It was the start of the digitalization of media. Computers and soundcards and emulation and plugins and as important, digital aggregators where making the home recording possible, and the barriers to entry affordable. All that was left was the energy, the desire and the doing.

In 2007 I released a short instrumental record, A DAY LATE: INSTRUMENTALS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS under my project alias at the time, SHANKS AND THE DREAMERS. My friend Ray P headed the production. He had recorded a couple of DIY albums (they still hold up) for his own projects and was a super fan of Steve Albini's style and methodology. We did the tracking in a music space (Bassland Studios) in Santa Ana California headed by OC electronic music pioneer Alex X. from the project of the same name BASSLAND (location where I shot a film called "my break ups into a million pieces"). A DAY LATE had six tracks and it took nearly 2 years to complete. Scheduling the sessions, mixing, tracking, school, work, and balancing my first love, film, expanded the production cycle way past what I had anticipated.

As a son of first-generation immigrants, my life seemed completely foreign and wayward to my parents. They had no idea where I got my interest in music, as I had never played an instrument before, except after high school, while in college, picking up my first guitar while I studied at UCLA.  Though the seeds were planted much earlier, and maybe I'll write about that in a different time. In any case, all was upheaval. It's hard to transpose an understanding now, to how things were. At that time, my choices were limited, because my understanding was completely limited. So, I could only see two viable options. Go back to school, or work at a coffee shop for the rest of my life (this binary seems incredibly naive and silly, but I suppose that's how it looks for large swarms of people). There were no career aspirations in art, even though all my time was spent doing it because I was disconnected from that reality even existing. It was an impossibility. And of course, that impossibility was just an illusion. But an illusion is no different than a reality, without the tools to break through.

In any case, and to the relief & constant campaigning from my parents, I headed back to school for a graduate degree. This experience made me an advocate at dissuading most from going through the same mistake. It is part of my story, and I would not change it in any way, but when asked, I offer the truth. And that truth is that for the majority, there are much better options and routes. 

And that leads me the last full-length record I did many years ago. A month after I shot my thesis project, I recorded my first full-length record under SHANKS AND THE DREAMERS (it had turned more or less into a band at this time), "MY DARLING DIA". It took a few intense months of education, assembling the tools, learning the programs, writing the songs, and tracking.  And all of it was a giant fuck up for the most part. But it was the single greatest music production lesson I ever learned. It was a condensed, intense education, full of "Skin In the Game" and no help or resources other than my partner at the time (Art Toussi) and localized friends in the scene (bands) and of course, the web. To my giant relief, almost every question had an answer on some forum once you filtered through the arguments. And some of the tools I gathered for that project still sit in my studio (music hardware lasts much longer than the digital stuff). Here we were, a local two-piece band out of Orange County Californian, self-producing an entire record, sitting in one of the top NY Mastering Studios, where a single compressor cost more than the whole production & still completely clueless, but feeling accomplished & wild-eyed. Oddly enough, neither of was thought of ourselves as musicians really. We both had wholly different lives with trajections that had nothing to do with music.

Which leads me to this. My first full-length record under my project MIRS, RAINBOW SEASON is coming out later this year. While I've been recording EP's and singles for the last several years under MIRS, I had assumed that a full-length project was out of the scope, as each EP was thought of as my last time recording (interestingly, music had always been regulated as a side project until the last couple years when I dropped compartmentalizing everything).  But, with time and refinement usually bring in something else. Help. And ever since CANYON, MIRS has had lots of help. So what was once a solo endeavor now has the assistance to take the means of communication into another space. 

And that all changed because one thing was missing. The desire to repeat & expand the process, something that I had always wanted to do with this new project, but never allowed myself to go all the way. It was another glass ceiling. That's what they always are. 

It took a long time to get to CANYON and the merging of music & film, but not surprisingly, it's just another beginning.

[animalsenterprises]

Saturday - MIRS (lyric video)

MIRS "Saturday" lyric video just went live. While you are here, please subscribe to the MIRS Youtube channel. For more info on MIRS, please head over to www.mirsmusic.com. MIRS is currently recording the album, RAINBOW SEASON, scheduled for release sometime this summer.

[animalsenterprises]

Merch finally available for my music project MIRS

You can finally pick up an awesome t-shirt in many different sizes for my ongoing music project MIRS by clicking the image below (15% off for the time being). All sales feed right back into the project, so, not only a good way to support but more important, a fresh way to get outside and stunt on your neighbors. Love yall :) 

[animalsenterprises]

"what do you know of water's worth while standing on the banks of the euphrates" premiere

We are premiering new work online,  Nov 28th, 2017.  Produced in-house at ANIMALS, in conjunction with MIRS.